Mike Bonagura

Growing up in central New Jersey in the late 60’s you could turn on the radio and in less than 15 minutes you could hear Janus Joplin, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and The Temptations without changing the dial on the transistor radio. Music was everywhere and I loved it all! “From the summer of ’66 when dad came home with my first guitar; a Sear and Roebuck Neptune single pickup electric guitar with the amp built right in the guitar case – I was hooked. I found my way into folk clubs and started writing songs in the 6th grade”. This lead to an early publishing deal and before I was out of high school I found myself in Detroit, MI playing guitar on a session for Barry Gordy at Motown Records. My first cut, “I knew Her” was a folk song turned R & B by that infamous Motown recording crew and recorded by an eternally forgotten hitless band – The Camel Drivers; ”still it was a cut”. Meeting my future wife and lifelong musical partner; Kathie Baillie at the University Of Delaware we formed an acoustic duo soon to become a trio with the addition of childhood companion Alan LeBoeuf called Bittersweet. We were signed to Atlantic records for a short lived single release in 1976. “Please Don’t Tell Me Goodnight” barely cracked the BillBoard charts and the road to stardom took a back seat to an extended 2 year engagement in a small club on the island of Bermuda where as a trio; we performed 3 sets a night – 6 nights a week working on our show before moving to Nashville, TN. Once in Nashville, the three of us, now known as BayLeBrook became much in demand background singers to be found on some of the biggest country recordings of all time; Randy Travis, Vince Gill, Dan Seals, Marie Osmond, Randy Travis, Lynn Anderson, Mo Bandy; the list goes on. Not only were we singing on these records but we were getting our own songs cut by these artists. That eventually led our deal on RCA records where we were signed as “Baillie And The Boys”. That time with RCA produced 10 Top Ten BillBoard Country Singles, 4 CD releases, movie soundtracks, along with numerous awards within the industry form The Country Music Association, The Academy Of Country Music and Music City’s TNN Network. Still touring as a an original member of Baillie And The Boys you can frequently find Mike Bonagura sitting in on one of the many writers in the round nights in Nashville TN singing one of his many penned hit songs or something brand new and a little “different”.